'We Didn't Even Vote For Us': In Framingham, A City Council Upset

This story was updated at 8:48 p.m. on Sept. 19.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Things just got interesting in Framingham's District 9 City Council race.

The city hosted the preliminary election on Sept. 19, when voters in Precincts 1, 2 and 3 went to Harmony Grove Elementary School to cast their ballots in the District 9 council race.

Those polls were quite close to remaining closed for the full day after, in a video posted to his Facebook page, candidate Jose Ferreira announced that he would remove himself from contention in the race against incumbent City Councilor Tracey Bryant and challenger Albert J. Chimeno.

Preliminary races are only held when three candidates are in the running for a particular seat. However, Ferreira's name still appeared on the ballot and, in a preliminary in which only 62 people voted, he garnered the second most votes.

"I'm surprised," Ferreira said during a Tuesday night phone call. "To be honest I really did not think it would go this way."

"You know, today we didn't even vote for us," he said of he and his wife.

So much so that he said he had already prepared his concession speech, which he planned to upload to Facebook on Tuesday night. That speech will have to wait.

The totals are:

• Tracey Bryant — 40
• Jose Ferreira — 16
• Albert J. Chimeno — 5

To say Ferreira's campaign approach was unique is to mislabel it slightly. Bluntly, starting sometime in August Ferreira's campaign approach was to not run a campaign.

In a phone interview with Patch in August, Ferreira confirmed that he fully intended to withdraw himself from the race, but also confirmed that he missed the deadline to file paperwork. Ferreira stopped campaigning and didn't take donations after the video came out.

City Clerk Lisa Ferguson confirmed that the city didn't receive any written withdrawal notification by the Aug. 2 deadline.

On Monday, Ferreira posted another video apologizing to residents of District 9 for the "inconvenience" of the election happening at all. He also said his family "received hate mail" during the process in the video.

However, he said that he would campaign for the seat if he won on Tuesday, which has now come to fruition.

"After speaking with my wife and not doing any campaigning whatsoever, if some of you choose me to be there and on Tuesday night and I am still on the ballot I will take upon my responsibility to try to become District 9 councilor," he said in the video.

Still, Ferreira won't be running a typical campaign. He said he won't be fundraising or making yard signs or any typical campaign tactics.

His face will still be seen around Framingham though, just in his own way.

"No signs, no knocking on doors, none of that. If my name is not seen enough by doing community service then I shouldn't take the job. Somebody else deserves the job," Ferreira said.

"I just want to be a voice to my community and that's the end of it. That's truly the end of it."

Whether he wants to be running or not, one thing is clear after Tuesday: Jose Ferreira is so back.

There will be a number of contested races during the Nov. 7 election, and a full list of candidates can be viewed here.

Seats up for election in 2023 include:

• 11 City Councilor seats
• 9 School Committee seats
• 6 Library Trustee seats
• 2 Cemetery Trustee seats

There are nine district seats available on the City Council and School Committee, and those candidates will be running for two-year terms.

Seats on the Boards of Library and Cemetery Trustees, as well as two at-large city councilors, are for four-year terms.